At 16 years old, Babar Ali must be the youngest headmaster in the world. He’s a teenager who is in charge of teaching hundreds of students in his family’s backyard, where he runs classes for poor ­children from his village. Babar Ali’s day starts early. He wakes, pitch­es in with the household chores, then jumps on an auto-­rickshaw to the Raj Govinda school. The school is the best in this part of West Bengal.

Babar Ali is the first member of his family ever to get a proper education. “It’s not easy for me to come to school because I live so far away,” he says, “but the teachers are good and I love learning. And my parents believe I must get the best education I can get.”

Raj Govinda school is government-run so it is free, all Babar Ali has to pay for is his uniform and his books. Many poor families can’t afford to send their children to school, even when it’s free.

Chumki Hajra has never been to school. She is 14 years old and lives in a tiny hut with her grandmother. Their home is simple. Inside there is just room for a bed and a few possessions. Every morning, instead of going to school, she cleans the homes of neighbours. “My father is handicapped and can’t work,” Chumki tells me. “We need the money. If I don’t work, we can’t survive as a family. So I have no choice but to do this job.” But Chumki is now getting an education, thanks to Babar Ali.

At four o’clock every afternoon after Babar Ali gets back to his family home a bell summons children to his house. They flood into the yard behind his house, where Babar Ali now acts as headmaster of his own school. Standing on a podium, he tells them about discipline, then the study begins. Babar Ali gives lessons the way he has heard them from his teachers.

He was just nine when he began teaching a few friends as a game. Now his afternoon school has 800 students, all from poor families and there are 10 teachers at the school, all like him, students at school or college, who give their time voluntarily. Babar Ali does not charge for anything, even books and food are given for free, funded by donations. The school has been recognized by the local authorities. It has helped increase the literacy rate in the area and Babar Ali has won awards for his work.

Adapted from bbc.co.uk, October 12th, 2009.

Text 2

Smile Foundation

Every day hundreds of starry-eyed poor people from villages of India land up in big cities along with their families in search of green­er pastures. Poverty due to lack of suitable employment then often forces these poor people to push their children into work where these innocent little ones end up being sexually exploited, employed in brothels, hotels and domestic work.

Some courageous ones however have it in them to change the course of their destiny. Smile Foundation, a national level development organisation working for the education and health of underprivileged children in 21 states of India, has always encouraged and provided support to such individuals through its various projects.

Rajbeer Singh is one such adolescent who was struggling for a meagre existence by washing and cleaning in lieu of food and stay. His longing for education made his kind-hearted employer put him in a government run school.

As luck would have it, Rajbeer came to know about Smile Twin e-Learning Projects (STeP) aimed to provide marketable skills to unemployed underprivileged youth across the country. He promptly got enrolled in one of the STeP centres run by Smile Foundation in Delhi. His never-say-die attitude and a strong desire to excel got him instant recognition by the faculty of the centre.

Rajbeer toiled hard to learn English, computer skills, personality development, retails etc. The faculty at the STeP centre also worked diligently on his personality to groom him into a presentable young man. Rajbeer after the completion of training got placed in one of the leading retail stores called Westside Stores. Rajbeer in less than two months of service at Westside stores has bagged ‘Employee of the Week’ award twice.

Text 1, l. 11: “my parents believe I must get the best education I can get”.

Text 2, l. 7-8: “to change the course of their destiny”.

Text 2, l. 25-26: “Rajbeer after the completion of training got placed in one of the leading retail stores called Westside Stores”.

3 They all go to school, although Babar teaches Chumki after school hours. They want a good education to rise above poverty. Rajbeer is the luckiest one of the lot, with his efficient training at STeP’s. They all get help: Babar from his parents, who have to pay for his studies, Chumki from Babar, and Rajbeer first from his employer, then from Smile.

EXPRESSION

1 Guidelines

Dear Sir,

Let me introduce myself: my name is Babar Ali, I am a sixteen-year-old student and I live in a small village in West Bengal. My parents work hard to save the money to send me to Raj Govinda school, and as the eldest of my family, I am proud to pave the way for my younger brothers and sisters. For seven years now, when I come back home from school, I have been teaching my fellow villagers who cannot attend school because they have to work. I am writing because there are more than 800 kids now in my school, and we need your help. Even though we get funds to provide the school with food and books, we really need a solid structure, particularly during the monsoon, and more room. We would be very grateful if you could help us.

Best regards,

B. Ali

2 Guidelines

You can’t imagine children who don’t smile. And you can’t imagine under­privileged children without Smile to help them.

At Smile Foundation we consider that initiatives have to be taken atgrassroots level to give health care and a proper education to children who can’t afford to go to school. Being an NGO we have set up our own schools to train children we have targeted for their strong motivation for studying. We are a non-profit organisation, so all the funds we receive from donations from individuals or corporate companies are spent on the children. In our centres we have implemented modern educational techniques, such as Computer-Aided Teaching Indian children need us, but we need you to sensitize privileged citizen as well as mass media to promote our action all over our country: the way to a proper education is the way to take one’s own destiny in one’s own hands.